CHICAGO (Reuters) - More than one in 20 patients undergoing
breast surgery later developed infections at incision sites,
according to a study released on Monday, a complication that
was more common than thought.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
estimates the infection rate following breast removal surgery
at 2 percent, although earlier surveys put it at anywhere
between 1 percent and 28 percent.

In the two-year study published in this month's issue of
the Archives of Surgery, 5.3 percent, or 50, of nearly 950
patients developed infections within a year of their
procedures, either inside and outside of the hospital. The
average time between surgery and infection was 47 days.

"The surgical site infection rates following breast surgery
seem to be much greater than the nationally reported incidence
of 2 percent and much higher than what is expected for clean
surgical procedures," Margaret Olsen of the Washington
University School of Medicine in St. Louis wrote in her report.

The cost of follow-up medical care ranged widely, but was
put by the study at roughly $4,000 per patient.

Infections have taken on fresh urgency amid a rise in
drug-resistant staph infections contracted both inside and
outside of hospitals.

Roughly one in eight women in the study who had a cancerous
breast removed and then underwent breast reconstruction with an
implant developed an infection. The infection rate was 7
percent among those who had breast reconstruction using tissue
taken from the abdomen, which was also an area where infections
struck.

Infections occurred among 4 percent of women undergoing a
mastectomy only, and among just 1 percent of those having
breast reduction surgery.